Dramatic roadside rescue after crash
WOMAN CUT FROM CAR AFTER CRASH WITH LORRY AT NOTORIOUS STRETCH
A WOMAN has had to be cut out of her car after colliding with a wagon at a notorious accident blackspot.
The nasty smash close to the Sovereign Crossroads at Shepley took place just after 2pm yesterday.
A silver Volkswagen Polo was in a collision with an HGV owned by Huddersfield firm Garrards timber merchants at the junction of Cross Lane and the A629 Lane Head Road.
The collision caused the car to leave the road, coming to a halt on a verge by a wall.
Firefighters used specialist cutting equipment to remove the roof of the car to allow the injured driver to be freed.
A spokesperson for West Yorkshire Police said the woman motorist in her 60s had been taken to Barnsley Hospital. Her injuries were not believed to be life threatening.
The lorry driver is thought to be shocked but uninjured.
The Carr Lane and Cross Lane junction with the A629 has been blighted by numerous accidents over the years.
Many drivers have claimed the junction with the main road is hidden, prompting Kirklees Council to put in extra high visibility warning signs that there is a junction ahead.
The latest incident has prompted fresh calls for more urgent road safety work in the area.
Steve Briddon, a retained firefighter and Afghanistan veteran, came across the latest smash and stopped to help the victims.
He said he arrived a few minutes after the crash and assisted a paramedic until police and fulltime firefighters attended.
Another passer-by directed traffic to prevent another accident occurring.
Mr Briddon, who works parttime out of Holmfirth fire station, lives in nearby Shepley and said he had seen and heard about far too many crashes at the junction and the more notorious Sovereign crossroads just a few metres away.
He said he could not understand why the authorities had not acted already.
“I don’t want to be responding to a call about two dead kids,” he said.
“There’s definitely a speed and death issue on this road yet they don’t seem to want to do anything about it.
“I do not understand why. Something has to be done about this road.
“My biggest fear is going to a call and finding a dead eight-year-old in the road.”